The present disclosure relates to data security, and more specifically, to data security of virtual machines.
Cloud computing is a method of delivering computing resources as a service rather than a product. Hardware resources, software and information are provided to client computers as a service over a network. In this effort, a cloud vendor provides and maintains a hardware and software infrastructure on which an enterprise can deploy virtual machines. The cloud vendor may charge for the services provided to the enterprise based on an amount of resources (e.g., disk space, network bandwidth, processor utilization, etc.) that the virtual machines of an enterprise consume.
A virtual machine is a software implementation of a machine that executes programs and applications just like a physical machine. Sometimes referred to as a “system virtual machine”, the virtual machine provides a complete system platform that supports execution of an operating system and any installed application software. Typically, an enterprise constructs a virtual machine by combining an operating system, application software, and the underlying data into a software package that can be executed within an application environment controlled by a hypervisor.
In practice, the cloud vendor provides a server, or other similar computer platform, as a host machine on which a hypervisor is executing. The hypervisor can be thought of as the communications pathway between the virtual machine and the underlying hardware of the host machine. Within the execution environment of the hypervisor, the virtual machine behaves as if it was a physical machine. The virtual machine can be “powered-on” and then boot up from a virtualized hard drive to load the operating system which can then provide access to application software and any underlying data and files.
A user at the enterprise uses a web browser, or other client interface software, to communicate with the hypervisor on the host machine. From the information provided by the hypervisor to the client interface, the user can see which virtual machines are available and select one for execution. Once a virtual machine begins execution, the web browser interface for the user mimics a physical monitor screen as if the user was using the actual physical hardware that is virtualized by the virtual machine.
Thus, a virtual machine can typically be executed on a number of different hardware platforms or host machines as long as an appropriate hypervisor is present that allows communications between a user and the virtual machine.